DISSEMINATION OF IDEAS. 
235 
Part of whom are cannibals. It is not yet two hundred 
T e ars since civilization and the light of a more humane 
re hgion have pursued their way along the banks of these 
ancient canals traced by the hand of nature ; long, however, 
Before the introduction of agriculture, before communica- 
>°ns for the purposes of barter were established among 
■’se scattered and often hostile tribes, the knowledge of 
extraordinary phenomena, of falls of water, of volcanic fires, 
a,1 4 of snows resisting all the ardent heat of summer, was 
j'fopagated by a thousand fortuitous circumstances. Three 
’itrirlred leagues from the coast, in the centre of South 
j', '''erica, among nations whose excursions do not extend to 
, lr ee days’ journey, we find au idea of the ocean, and words 
'at denote a mass of salt water extending as far as the eye 
' ' U1 discern. Various events, which repeatedly occur in 
avage life, contribute to enlarge these conceptions. In 
^sequence of the petty wars between neighbouring tribes, 
^ Prisoner is brought into a strange country, and treated as 
^ P°ito or mero, that is to say, as a slave. After being ofteri 
l^d, he is dragged to new wars, escapes, and returns home; 
t ® relates what he has seen, and what ho has heard from 
^,Ose whose tongue he has been compelled to learn. As on 
“ c °yering a coast, we hear of great inland animals, so, on 
Btering the valley of a vast river, we are surprised to find 
a at savages, who" are strangers to navigation, have acquired 
knowledge of distant things. In the infant state of 
t ^oiety, the exchange of ideas precedes, to a certain point, 
® exchange of productions. 
, v i I j e two great cataracts of the Orinoco, the celebrity of 
is so far-spread and so ancient, are formed by the 
.^sage of the river across the mountains of Parima. They 
' called by the natives Mapara and Quittuna; but the 
At| Sl ° n ari cs have substituted for these names those of 
W 6r res an d Maypures, after the names of the tribes which 
the ° assen dd e d together in the nearest villages. On 
by ,|‘° as t of Caracas, the two Groat Cataracts are denoted 
a c j ' le simple appellation of the two Haudales, or rapids ; 
eyg^BBxioation which implies that the other falls of water, 
sidg ' , le r apids of Camiseta and of Carichana, are not eon- 
c; ltii rf f as worthy of attention when compared with the 
ra cts of Atures and Maypures. 
